Round-up of Recent Restaurant Visits

Been a whirlwind lately - here’s what I’ve been up to: had a nice lunch with Helen Cleland of Plum TV at Estia’s Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor. It’s a perfect little lunch spot - she had the day’s special which was grilled halibut over greens; I had Dolores’ egg salad sandwich on whole grain: excellent. They kept filling my iced tea. Nice.

Later that evening - en route to Manhattan for Peter Tunney’s art opening (BTW - his brother is John Tunney of Besito, HONU Kitchen + Cocktail, and American Roadside Burger fame), I noticed that the third Hamptons Citarella opened right on Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton, so I stopped in. And there was owner Joe Gurrera urging all construction-types to finish up here, move that there. Meanwhile the store is spankin’.

In ethnic food news: the very authentic La Fondita (Mex take-out in Amagansett) has reopened in its familiar location next to Art of Eating. Been there three times in ten days: fresh tamales, wicked guac with plenty of cilanthro, fresh watermelon juice. Love that place - may as well be in Mexico City. And finally, last Saturday found me barreling down Bay Parkway in Brooklyn to get to a free salsa lesson. On the way, I noticed a Turkish spot by the name of Istanbul. I talked snookums into a post-lesson bite: we were blessed by better than average acili ezme, falafels, hummus, lamacun, salmon kebabs and cunefe. I’ll be back, but you should go - to all these places. Cheers!